Category: Secondary Elementary

Dipity

Kelly Tenkely5 Comments on Dipity7456 views


What it is: Dipity is a site that makes it simple for your students to create and share interactive timelines about any subject or topic. It allows students to embed You Tube videos, Twitter, RSS feeds, Blogger, flickr, Picasa, Last FM, and more right into their timelines. Dipity makes timelines relevant and fun for students and best of all, students are creating timelines in “their language” of Digital Native. You have to check this one out…look at a sample timeline to see how truly superior these timelines are to the traditional paper/pencil timeline! Okay seriously, have you ever seen something so cool?!

How to integrate Dipity into the classroom: Dipity is the perfect tool for creating a timeline for any subject in your classroom. Students can bring history to life by embedding relevant You Tube video into their timelines. Create a timeline of your day by combining Dipity with your classroom tweets from Twitter. Timelines can be created by students individually or as a class and posted on a class website as a study resource. Dipity makes your classroom interactive and engaging for students. This is where real learning takes place! To introduce Dipity to your students, invite them to create a timeline of their day or their lives using Dipity (if they have a family Flickr account they can embed pictures right into their timeline).

Tips: Students can look at the content they add to Dipity in four different views: Timeline, List View, Flipboook, and Map View (this only works if the timeline has been tagged with locations.)

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Dipity in your classroom.

Time Tube

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Time Tube3739 views

What it is: Time Tube is an awesome website for our You Tube addicted students. It is essentially a cross between a time line and You Tube. Students can type in a historical (or any) event and Time Tube will create a time line of related videos (the time line is based on when the video was added not on historical relevance). You have to see it to truly appreciate the cool factor of this tool. Your technology native students will “get” this site right away.

How to integrate Time Tube into the classroom: Use Time Tube in your classroom to introduce students to time lines, history subjects, current events, etc. Your students will appreciate the break from the traditional textbook time lines and learn more in the process. Before using Time Tube with your classroom, preview the topic to verify its school appropriateness (actually you should always do that!) This would also be a good place to teach students to question the reliability of the resources they are using and to check their “facts”.

Tips: Time Tube is related to a site called Dipity which I will be reviewing tomorrow…very neat!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Time Tube in your classroom.

Computer Lab Favorites

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Computer Lab Favorites2869 views

What it is: Computer Lab Favorites is a collection of 50 one stop learning activities created
by Scholastic. The activities are self contained and interactive.
Students can play Dude the Dog, Scientific Labeling, Human Body Math
Hunt, Around the World, Mapman challenge, Puzzled States, Classify
This, Moon Olympics, Pick the Perfect Word, Choose a Word, and many
more. Students can spin a virtual game wheel to play a game. The site
is broken down by subject and also by grade levels k-2 and 3-5.

How to integrate Computer Lab Favorites into the classroom:
As the school year winds down, allow your students to review all they
have learned over the course of the year by playing these great
interactive activities. Students can spin the game spinner and have a
game selected for them or choose a specific subject or topic of play.
Save this site for next year, it is the perfect way to introduce a
topic or put some life back into reviews! The games are content rich
and a lot of fun to play!

Tips: This would be a good site to set as the home page on your classroom
computers. It has enough games and content to keep you coming back all
year long!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Computer Lab Favorites in your classroom.

Phun

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Phun2614 views

What it is: As promised today I am reviewing the Mac version of Crayon Physics…it isn’t exactly the same, but has very similar principles and applications. Phun is a ‘playground’ where students can be creative while learning about physics principles such as resistance, friction, energy, gravity, force, etc. Phun isn’t a game with a goal like Crayon Physics, instead it is an area where students can create their own shapes and rules and see how they interact when different principles such as gravity and force are applied. Phun is a free program and available for both Mac and PC.


How to integrate Phun into the classroom: Like Crayon Physics, students can use Phun to learn about principles of gravity, energy, force, velocity, etc. Students will enjoy having an environment to test out physics concepts and conceptualize experiments. Phun may have even more application for the physics classroom because it isn’t a puzzle to figure out, but a creative environment to explore and test.

Tips: Because Phun is a free download, students can use this software at school and at home. Cool!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Phun in your classroom.

Crayon Physics

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Crayon Physics3187 views

What it is: Crayon Physics is a freeware puzzle game. The object of the game is to guide a ball to a star. Students do not have direct control of the ball, but interact with it by drawing shapes with the mouse to get the ball to roll from one platform to another. Any object that students draw reacts as it would if it were subject to gravity. There are some great physics lessons to be taught with this game! Crayon Physics is a Windows only download right now…(I know, bummer for those of us who are Mac users! Not to worry, I have found a Mac version that I will be posting tomorrow.)

How to integrate Crayon Physics into the classroom: Allow students to interact with Crayon Physics to learn about principles of gravity, energy, force, velocity, etc. The game is very entertaining and even mildly addictive. Your students will love learning physics with Crayon Physics. It will bring your class and all those formulas to life for your students.

Tips: Take a look at the video above for a good look at Crayon Physics in action.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Crayon Physics in your classroom.

Moneyopolis

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Moneyopolis18452 views


What it is: Moneyopolis is an awesome game for teaching kids money and math! Each math question in the game is correlated to specific standards for grades 6-8 (although I think the site can be used with 5th grade students very successfully as well). The Moneyopolis game tracks students progress via their “scorecard” for the game. There are some great additional site tools which include a budget gadget that helps students set financial goals complete with an online worksheet to help students keep track of spending habits, a library with articles and links to other sites focused on math and money, a glossary for students to look up unfamiliar words and phrases, and a calculator to help students calculate math problems.

How to integrate Moneyopolis into the classroom: Moneyopolis is the perfect way for teaching math and money skills in a way that will catch and hold your students attention. Students can go through the game during class at their own pace, play in groups to compete against one another during class, or as an extra-credit activity that can be completed outside of class. Students can go through the game section by section based on what lessons you are teaching, or all at once at the end of a unit. Since the game keeps track of each students progress, they will be able to exit the game and come back to work where they left off.

Tips: Work through this game in student mode before introducing to students…you will be entertained! The teacher section of this site has some great lesson plans to use with Moneyopolis. I learned about the site on Larry Ferlazzo’s blog and I have to say, it is a winner!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Moneyopolis in your classroom.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Guest Post: Kid Vid

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Guest Post: Kid Vid3500 views

Kids’ Vid: Classroom Video Production

Creating videos in a classroom setting can be an exciting way to encourage children to learn and create. However, this form of technology can be intimidating to newcomers. Both teachers and students can learn how to create, edit and share videos with Kids’ Vid.

Although there are many video resources on the Web, few are available that cater to those in a K-12 environment. Video hosting sites are often a source of objectionable material and corporate software sites are often too technical for laypersons. Kids’ Vid, however, is created specifically with teachers and young students in mind.

The video tutorials on this site are offered in four stages:

1. Scripting – The Scripting area of Kids’ Vid offers advanced storyboarding tools and tips for writing a classroom-friendly screenplay.
2. Making – The Making section covers all aspects of capturing the video, from operating the camera to lighting the video shoot.
3. Editing – The Editing area offers tips on pulling all the elements together and adding special effects.
4. Showtime – The Showtime section explains the various ways to share a video once it is edited, which includes CD-Rom, DVD and broadcasting on the Web.

Both teachers and students can benefit from the four areas above, which explain detailed techniques in an easy-to-grasp format. There is also a special area for educators that offers tips on how to integrate video production with a curriculum. Furthermore, children will enjoy the Kid Advice section, where they will learn helpful hints from their peers.

Young adults are more acclimated to video technology than ever before. Indeed, this is the “YouTube generation” and many children are very curious about how to make their own videos. Not only can you appeal to your students in a cutting-edge fashion with Kids’ Vid, you will find this medium to be very conducive with education in general.

Heather Johnson is a regular commentator on the subject of top online university. She welcomes your feedback and potential job inquiries at heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

Read the Words

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Read the Words3229 views


What it is: Read the Words is a free website that offers an audio player that will read anything you want. The Reader on the audio player can be listened to online, downloaded to a mp3 player, broadcasted as a podcast, or posted on a website or blog. The first step to creating your reader is selecting what you want read, this can be uploaded from a PDF, MS Word, HTML file, or input manually, cut and pasted, through RSS or URL. Step 2 is selecting a reader for your purposes, there are 14 readers to choose from. The readers speak English, Spanish, and French. Each reader has unique voices and some have accents. You can control the reader’s speed and pitch. Best of all it takes approximately one minute to generate an hour long recording.

How to integrate Read the Words into the classroom: Read the Words would be an excellent way to guide a webquest for students, create a reader to steer students through each activity in the webquest. If you have mp3 players available for checkout, create a reader for guided reading. These can be used in class during silent reading time or checked out for home use so that the student learning day can be extended. The readers would be excellent for history or science reading where vocabulary can be challenging. Read the Words is perfect for your auditory learners and because you can have text that is already in your lesson read, the differentiation for these students is short and sweet. Read the Words would also be great for English language learners or for English speakers learning Spanish or French.

Tips:
Take some time initially to listen to each of the readers. Choose the one that is easiest for your students to understand and best fits your purposes.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Read the Words in your classroom.

Leon Math Movies

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Leon Math Movies4698 views


What it is: Leon Math Movies is a part of the I Know That website that I have posted about in the past. After introducing this to a new set of second graders today I knew I needed to write about this specific part of I Know That. The kids absolutely love Leon Math Movies and it helps them practice their math skills (truly they will play this one at home without being asked). It is a great way to reinforce math facts and give some great math fact practice. Best of all it can be adapted to whatever math skill they are learning. They can practice counting, skip counting, all levels of addition, all levels of subtraction, multiplication, division, and a mix of addition and subtraction. Leon is a chameleon that goes on adventures (think Indiana Jones), as the cartoon plays, students have to solve math problems on the on screen PDA to help Leon during his adventures. The storylines and graphics are really well done and fun. Students can choose from 3 math adventure movies and any combination of practice they need. When they finish an adventure they can print out a certificate showing their math fact progress. So much fun!!

How to integrate Leon Math Movies into the classroom: Leon Math Movies are perfect for any classroom or lab configuration. The movies are fun for whole class participation on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector, call students up one at a time to help Leon by solving math problems. This is also a good one to set up on the classroom computers as a math center that students can visit throughout the week. Or, you can use it in the computer lab setting with each student playing individually. If you live in an area where you can assign this one for homework, I guarantee you will have full class participation!

Tips: There are banner ads on the I Know That website, I use these as an opportunity to talk to my class about what an ad is and what the advertisers want us to do. There is also an option to register before playing a game. I always tell my students to choose the “Maybe Later” option so that we don’t have to worry about keeping track of usernames and passwords.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Leon Math Movies in your classroom.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

Zoho Challenge

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Zoho Challenge2519 views


What it is: Zoho may look familiar to you if you have been with me for a while. Zoho has a great online suite of office productivity tools such as spreadsheets, word documents, and online presentations. If you haven’t ever tried out the Zoho tools, they are definitely worth a look! Zoho has a new fabulous tool for teachers, called Zoho Challenge. Zoho Challenge allows teachers to easily conduct tests online in 4 simple steps. Zoho Challenge allows for multiple choice questions and descriptive questions. Results are displayed immediately for you and your students (although this setting can be altered to fit your needs.) Time limits can be specified, difficulty levels calculated automatically, and online access to students details. Zoho Challenge also has the ability to send emails to your students with their scores. Zoho makes it simple to create multiple exams, add candidates, schedule tests for future dates, look at student performance, find out who passed the test in a quick glance, view a “report card”, and view a graphical representation of overall results.

How to integrate Zoho Challenge into the classroom: Zoho Challenge can be used for any classroom testing. It makes it extremely easy for you to grade tests and see the results graphically. Zoho Challenge will save you time and quickly show you who understood the tested material and who needs more practice. Zoho Challenge is best used in a computer lab or mobile lab setting.

Tips: Test results can be sent home to parents via email…cool!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Zoho Challenge in your classroom.

Technorati Tags: , , ,